Beast Empire

Ashes and Blood

Ethan's lungs burned as he ran through the darkening forest toward home. At first, the distant glow through the trees seemed ordinary. Perhaps his mother had lit extra lanterns, or his father had returned early and built a large fire for cooking.

But as he drew closer, the orange radiance grew brighter and fiercer, painting the Ashspire trunks in hellish light. The acrid smell of burning thatch reached his nostrils, and dread settled in his stomach like cold lead.

Something was terribly wrong.

He broke into a desperate sprint, crashing through undergrowth without regard for stealth or safety. The glow became a roar of flame, and when he finally burst from the tree line, his heart nearly stopped.

Their cottage, his home, his sanctuary, was being devoured by fire. Hungry flames licked at every surface, climbing the walls like living creatures. Black smoke poured into the star-filled sky, carrying with it the ashes of everything familiar and safe.

And there, surrounded by a mob of torch-bearing villagers, was his mother.

"Ma!" Ethan shouted, racing toward the chaos without thinking.

Lila's tear-streaked face turned toward him, and terror replaced the grief in her eyes. "No! Ethan, run! Get away from here!"

But he couldn't stop. His legs carried him forward even as his mind reeled from the scene before him. He skidded to a halt between his mother and the angry crowd, his chest heaving, his horn catching firelight like polished bone.

"What's happening?" he gasped, looking from the burning cottage to the villagers' hostile faces. "Please, we need to put out the fire! Help us save it!"

The villagers recoiled as if he carried plague. "Stay back, monster!" Gareth the blacksmith snarled, raising his hammer like a weapon. "Don't come any closer!"

Confusion crashed over Ethan like a wave. These were people he had known his entire life: shopkeepers who had sold his family bread, neighbors who had nodded politely in the square. Why weren't they helping? Why were they just standing there with torches while his home burned?

"We have to kill it!" a voice shrieked from the crowd. "Before it kills us all!"

The words didn't make sense. Kill what? Kill who? Ethan's world tilted sideways as understanding began to dawn with horrible clarity. They weren't here to help. The torches in their hands...

"No," Lila stepped forward, placing herself between her son and the villagers. Her voice was steady despite the tears. "We'll leave. Tonight. We'll go far away and never return. Just please, don't hurt him."

"Leave?" Ethan stared at his mother in bewilderment. "Why? What did we do wrong?" He turned to the villagers, his young voice cracking with desperation. "This is our home! We've lived here my whole life!"

But he was speaking to hearts turned to stone by terror. They had seen what his hand could do. They knew what he was.

"For our children's sake," Aldric muttered, stepping behind Ethan with an axe raised high. "You have to die."

The blade whistled down toward Ethan's unprotected neck.

Lila moved like lightning, throwing herself between her son and death. The axe meant for Ethan's spine bit deep into her shoulder instead, splitting flesh and scraping bone with a sound that would haunt nightmares forever.

She collapsed with a cry that seemed to tear the very air.

"Ma!" Ethan dropped to his knees beside her, his hands hovering uselessly over the terrible wound. Blood poured from the gash like a dark river, soaking into the ground beneath them. "No, no, no! Ma, stay with me!"

He pressed his gloved hands desperately against the wound, trying to stem the flow, but the blood kept coming, seeping hot and slick between his fingers. His mother's face had gone white as moonlight, her breathing shallow and labored.

Aldric stared at his bloody axe in shock, his face crumbling. "I didn't mean… She wasn't supposed to... I only meant to..."

Lila gasped, blood frothing at her lips as she struggled to remain conscious. With shaking fingers, she reached for the rune stone around her neck, a smooth piece of obsidian that seemed to pulse with inner light.

"Ethan..." she wheezed, her voice barely a whisper as she pressed the stone into his palm. "Find... your father."

"I'm not leaving you!" Ethan clutched the stone while pressing his other hand desperately against her wound. Blood seeped between his fingers, hot and slick. "You're going to be fine! Just stay awake!"

Her eyes were already growing distant, fighting to focus on his face. "Run," she managed, each word costing her tremendous effort. "They'll... kill you..."

"No! I won't leave you!"

Lila's hand found his wrist with what little strength remained. Her grip was weak, trembling. "Please..." A tear rolled down her pale cheek. "Live... for me..."

Her head fell back, her breathing becoming shallow and erratic. The light was fading from her eyes, but she used her last coherent moment to mouth one final word: "Go."

Something in her tone, the absolute authority of a mother's final wish, broke through his terror and despair. With a sob that seemed to come from his very soul, Ethan stumbled to his feet.

"I'll find Father!" he choked out, backing away even as every fiber of his being screamed to stay. "I'll bring him back! Just hold on, Ma! Please hold on!"

"He's running!" someone bellowed from the crowd. "Don't let the monster escape!"

"After him!" Gareth roared, and torches began to move as villagers prepared to give chase.

But Ethan had already turned and fled into the forest, clutching the rune stone to his chest, tears streaming down his face. He ran blindly, branches tearing at his clothes and scratching his face. He knew these woods, every deer path and rabbit warren, every fallen log and hidden stream.

Behind him, angry shouts rose as the mob organized itself, but the sounds seemed strangely muted, as if the forest itself was swallowing them. He didn't look back, and didn't stop to wonder why the pursuit sounded so distant. He simply ran, driven by his mother's final command to survive and consumed by grief too large to comprehend.

After what felt like hours but might have been only minutes, exhaustion finally forced him to slow down. He collapsed against the trunk of a massive Ashspire, gasping for breath, his whole body shaking with suppressed sobs.

Only then did he notice where his flight had brought him.

A small clearing opened before him, bathed in the gentle light of the twin moons. And there, beside a fallen log, lay a sight that stopped his breath entirely.

A white fox, magnificent even in death, lay motionless with her silver fur dulled and matted. But it was not the fox that drew his attention it was the tiny cub pressed against her still flank, mewling pitifully.

The kit's left hind leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly broken, and when it saw Ethan approaching, it tried desperately to scramble away. But the cub was too weak, too injured to flee. It could barely drag itself a few inches before collapsing again with pitiful whimpers, its bright eyes wide with terror and pain.

Ethan sank to his knees slowly, moving with deliberate gentleness. The parallels were too cruel, too perfect. Here was another child who had lost their mother. Another small life left alone and terrified, with nowhere to run and no one to protect them.

"It's all right," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I won't hurt you."

The cub didn't understand his words. It only knew that this strange creature with the horn was approaching while it lay helpless and broken. It shrank back against its mother's body, trembling violently.

Ethan's careful control shattered completely. All the grief he'd been holding back came pouring out in great, wracking sobs. He gathered the injured kit into his arms, and it was too exhausted to resist, though it continued to tremble against his chest.

"I know," he whispered to the trembling cub as his tears fell onto its matted fur. "I know exactly how you feel. I lost my mother too."

The kit made a small, pitiful sound and pressed closer to his warmth, seeking comfort even from this strange being it feared.

In that moonlit clearing, surrounded by the vast indifference of the forest, a boy who had lost his mother and a fox cub who had lost its mother clung to each other. Both orphaned. Both were terrified. Both alone in a world that had suddenly become too large and too cruel.

Ethan held the small, broken creature and wept for them both.